About Our Doctors—Long Beach & Los Alamitos Hemorrhoid Specialist

Long Beach Providers

David Drake, MD

Dr. David Drake grew up in Wyoming, graduated from Stanford University and received his Medical Degree from the University of Arizona. His internship, residency and GI fellowship were completed at the University of California, Irvine

Dr. Drake is Board Certified in both Internal Medicine and Gastroenterology. He is a Fellow of the American College of Gastroenterology. He currently is the managing partner of Long Beach Gastroenterology Associates.

Dr. Drake has been on active staff at Long Beach Memorial Medical center since 1982. He has served as Chief of Medicine and Section Chief of the GI Department. He is a member of the Board of Trustees. Dr. Drake has been on the teaching faculty for UCLA for 10 years and more recently with UC Irvine.

His interests are GI consultation, upper endoscopy and colonoscopy

Dr. Drake and his wife Cheryl have two grown children and have lived in Long Beach since 1977. They enjoy the mountains, skiing, hiking and fly fishing.

Erik Kerekes, MD

Dr. Erik Kerekes was born and raised in South Pasadena, California. He graduated from the University of California, Santa Barbara with a double major in Biopsychology and Biological Sciences. Subsequently, he continued on to medical school at Universidad Autonoma de Guadalajara, followed by a transitional internship at New York Medical College. He then went on to Loma Linda University Medical Center, where he completed both his Internal Medicine residency and Gastroenterology fellowship.

Dr. Kerekes is certified by both the American Board of Gastroenterology and the American Board of Internal Medicine. He is a Fellow in the American College of Gastroenterology and is currently the Section Chief of the Gastroenterology Department at Long Beach Memorial Medical Center. Recently, he became a member of the Board of Trustees.

Dr. Kerekes is dedicated to providing compassionate medical care to his patients and has a particular interest in the diagnosis and treatment of disorders of the biliary tract. He is fluent in Spanish and proficient in Italian.

In his free time, Dr. Kerekes and his wife Christine enjoy movies, beach living, sports, and above all, traveling.

Saeid Goshtasbi, MD

Dr. Saied Goshtasbi completed his medical training from the Iran University of Medical Sciences and moved to the United States in 2002 where he completed his Residency in Internal Medicine from the University Of Wisconsin Medical School in Milwaukee. He was appointed Chief Resident in 2005 and completed three years of Post Graduate training in Gastroenterology and Hepatology. In 2009 he completed an Advanced Endoscopy Fellowship at U.C.L.A. He is certified by both the American Board of Internal Medicine and the American Board of Gastroenterology.

Dr. Goshtasbi is the most recent addition to the staff at Long Beach Gastroenterology Associates. He joined our staff in May of 2012 after practicing in Downey and Lynwood for the prior two years. He is a member of the American Gastroenterological Association, The American College of Gastroenterology, The American Society of Gastrointestinal Endoscopy and the American Association for the Study of Liver Diseases.

Dr. Goshtasbi enjoys all aspects of Gastroenterology but he has a special interest in the treatment of liver diseases, disorders of biliary ducts, inflammatory bowel disease and colon cancer screening. Dr. Gostasbi believes we need to be both compassionate for patients and efficient for society. He strives to ensure that every patient receives the highest level of medical care.

Dr. Goshtasbi enjoys spending time with his wife and two sons. He likes watching football, soccer, movies and listening to Persian music.

Mehrdad Saliminejad, MD

Dr. Mehrdad Saliminejad, (Dr. Sal), was born in Tehran, Iran, where he completed his medical school, residency, and fellowship in Gastroenterology, and stayed on as faculty member at Tehran University.  After his marriage, Dr. Sal moved to the United States, and upon completing his Medicine residency and GI fellowship at Keck School of Medicine of the University of Southern California (USC), he became certified by the American Board of Internal Medicine as well as by the American Board of Gastroenterology.

Dr. Sal subsequently joined the GI faculty at Southern Illinois University (SIU) to pursue his career goals of teaching and enhancing his advanced endoscopic skills; Dr. Sal was concurrently promoted to Director of Advanced Endoscopy as well as Chief of the Gastroenterology Division at SIU.

Reminiscing about the breadth and myriad of diverse activities available for their son, the family decided to return and establish roots in Southern California.  Dr. Sal therefore joined Long Beach Gastroenterology Associates (LBGA) in 2017 to continue his passion of caring for patients with Gastrointestinal and Liver disorders.

The experience and expertise he has acquired over the years have allowed Dr. Sal to now focus more on performing complex GI procedures including Endoscopic Ultrasound (EUS), ERCP and Interventional and Therapeutic Luminal Endoscopic procedures, which aid in prevention, diagnosis and non-invasive treatment of various Gastroenterology disorders. These cutting-edge and valuable interventions are carried out at Long Beach Memorial Hospital, thereby allowing the expansion of Todd Cancer Center and LBGA’s spectrum of General Gastroenterology and Gastroenterology cancer care of patients through these additional modalities that augment and improve patient care.

Dr. Sal’s main hobby is spending time with his family and they all enjoy various outdoor and nature-related activities.  He additionally takes pleasure in keeping abreast of new medical breakthroughs that help elevate the level of care for his patients with gastrointestinal ailments and improve the quality of his patients’ lives.

Los Alamitos Providers

Thai-Van Nguyen, MD

Dr. Thai-Van Nguyen, a board-certified gastroenterologist since 1997, joined Gastroenterology Consultants in 2006. Dr. Nguyen’s primary medical focus are gastrointestinal concerns and colon cancer screening. She has extensive experience in performing endoscopy and colonoscopy procedures. She also specializes in liver diseases, including hepatitis. Dr. Nguyen received her undergraduate degree in Biology Sciences with cum laude from the University of California in Irvine, California, and her medical degree from the Albert Einstein College of Medicine in New York. She completed her residency in Internal Medicine at Cedars-Sinai Medical Center in Los Angeles and then her fellowship in Gastroenterology/ Hepatology at the University of Southern California. Dr. Nguyen currently holds membership with the American Gastroenterology Associations, the American Society of Gastroenterology Endoscopy, and the Southern California Gastroenterology Society.

As for her personal life, she was born in Vietnam and has been in the United States since 1975. She and her husband, Nicholas, have two girls. The family enjoys living in sunny Seal Beach and very much enjoy traveling, swimming, jogging, tennis and skiing. Dr. Thai-Van Nguyen also dedicates her time volunteering with the Vietnamese American Cancer Foundation over the last 11 years and is currently the Chairperson for the organization. From her community work, she has been named Women who Make a Difference by State Secretary Lou Correa in 2013.

Joe Chen, MD

Dr. Joe M. Chen was born in Taiwan and grew up in Knoxville, Tennessee. He received his medical degree from the University of Tennessee and completed his internship and residency at Harbor-UCLA Medical Center in Torrance, CA. He completed his GI Fellowship at UCLA.

Dr. Chen is Board Certified in both Internal Medicine and Gastroenterology. He is a fellow of the American College of Gastroenterology, and he belongs to both the American College of Physicians and Los Angeles County Medical Association. In 2013, Dr. Chen was named by Castle Connolly Medical Ltd. as one of the Top Doctors in Southern California.

Dr. Chen’s primary interests in the practice are general GI consultations including colon cancer screening and liver disease. He has extensive experience in endoscopy and colonoscopy procedures and biliary procedures such as ERCP.

Dr. Chen has been a resident of Southern California for 25 years and is an active member of the community. He coaches soccer and serves on various school committees. Dr. Chen resides in Seal Beach with his wife, Beth and their 4 boys. He is a tri-athlete and runs marathons. Dr Chen enjoys college football, running, gardening, & watching his children excel in piano, water polo, soccer, swimming, basketball, football and tennis.

 

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Fast & Effective

The procedure takes about 1 minute to perform and is 95% effective.

No Recovery Time

Most patients can resume normal activities the same day.

Painless

The procedure is painless and typically no pain medication is required after the procedure.

Covered by Insurance

The procedure is covered by Medicare and most insurance plans.

This non-surgical procedure has been performed over 800,000 times on patients across the country.

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After suffering 50 years of foolish discomfort and only three visits, I feel like a new woman. Thank you for making such an amazing difference in my everyday life.